Free The Flesh Eaters by L. A. Morse

the man’s shoulders and rolls him over. It takes a moment before he realizes that he is looking at a partially decayed corpse. The skin is gray, with green patches; the flesh is eaten away to reveal part of the jaw bone. There are no eyes, only black sockets; the lips are gone, and the yellow teeth grin hideously. Weaver screams in terror. As he recoils, Sawney Beane drops down on him out of the trees and deftly slits his throat. Weaver clutches at his neck and staggers from side to side.
    Sawney Beane gives the knife to the boy. “Take him! Take him! Be like the wolf.”
    The boy begins to slash and stab at Weaver. At first his movements are hesitant, but as his father shouts encouragement, he gains assurance and thrusts with greater force. He feels the knife cutting deep into the thing’s flesh. That sensation has been described to him many times, and now it thrills him.
    Weaver falls to the ground.
    Sawney Beane cries out, “That’s right! Stick him! Kill him! Strike deep! Hard! Harder! Stick him!”
    The boy leaps on the dead man and continues to stab him. Sawney Beane watches, then nods. “Good. That is enough. You have done well.”
    The boy stands up. His breath comes in deep gasps, and his face is flushed with pride.
    “You get the reward of the hunter,” Sawney Beane says. “Drink his blood. Taste the life of the thing.”
    The boy drops down on the body. He places his mouth on the gash in the throat, tastes the blood tentatively, then begins to suck it up greedily. Watching, Sawney Beane experiences a kind of pride. He senses that a significant event has occurred today.
    The boy turns to his father, seeking approval. Sawney Beane remembers something from the very beginning. He stoops over the body and puts his fingers in the throat wound until they are covered in blood. Solemnly, he uses his bloody fingers to draw a line down the center of the boy’s forehead. He then draws horizontal lines over each eyebrow and diagonal lines on each cheek.
    “You are now a hunter.” Sawney Beane’s eyes burn as he looks at his son. “You are now First Hunter.”
    For the first time, the boy has a name. He grins, very proud of himself.
    Sawney Beane raises his eyes to the surrounding trees. “Come out now,” he calls, and the other children leave the hiding places from which they have observed everything. “He has done well. He is now a hunter. Soon you will all become hunters.”
    The children regard their brother with a new respect. He is now a hunter. They long for the time when they too will be hunters.
    After dismembering the body of James Weaver, Sawney Beane attaches a rope to the torso and drags it through the woods. Two of the children carry one of Weavers legs between them, another has an arm. First Hunter walks apart, carrying only a brown-stained knife. His head is held high. He is no longer a child.
     
     

 
    II
     
     
    The family continues to grow; there is a new child almost every year. While there are several infant deaths, most of the children thrive surprisingly well in the fetid environment of the cave. A life that might cause an outsider to sicken and die quickly does no harm to the family. They are tough, healthier than most of the population of the kingdom.
    As the family grows, domestic routines change and develop. All the children have tasks to perform. The older children become responsible for training the younger ones.
    Meg rarely hunts now; she is content to exert command over the growing army of offspring. Inactivity and almost constant pregnancy have caused her to put on weight, but her bulk gives added authority to her matriarchal role. Life in the cave revolves around her, as though she were the giant white queen of an ant colony.
    The family’s unceasing forays for prey have gained them a tremendous store of supplies, which are kept piled in lopsided mountains around the edge of the cavern. The quantity and variety of these goods would be the envy of the wealthiest nobility, but